The First Artists

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Legend has it that Pablo Picasso remarked upon emerging from a visit to Lascaux cave that, “we have discovered nothing new in art in 17,000 years”. The beautiful artwork from this ancient era is a reminder of our innate impulse to create. Amazingly, research is showing that at the time that the Lascaux paintings were being made, (the upper Paleolithic era), humans were using almost all of the major representational techniques already, from oil and water- based painting to engraving and sculpture. “Primitive” artists were also using sophisticated techniques of perspective and shading. In many of the cave drawings animals are drawn in a way that suggests motion and were carefully situated so that the natural shape of the cave walls gave them three-dimensional form.

There have been so many theories and counter-theories proposed by scientists over time about the purpose of this prehistoric art. We will never know for sure. The interesting thing is that the tribes of hunter/gatherers devot…